The Vine: June 14, 2013

I'm looking for a YA book that I know I purchased from a remainders bin at a Tuesday Morning sometime in the mid-'90s (yes, I remember this, but not the author or title).

It was about a high-school girl, with an abusive father, who gets pregnant and runs away from home to have the baby. After she moves, she stays at a YMCA and gets a job as a waitress. The unique thing I remember about this book is that the restaurant where she works is run by a former doctor and only sells round food (i.e., burgers, pancakes, soup in a round bowl, etc.). A regular at the restaurant (who I think was an artist) eventually takes her in and in the end, she doesn't give up the baby for adoption, but the artist, the restaurant owner, and a few other people all decide they will all be a family and raise the baby together.

I've just helped my parents clean out their basement, including a box I thought this book would be in, so that was my last hope for finding it again, with the exception of the Vine readers. I hope it rings a bell for someone!

A

*****

Hiya Sars and Brilliant Nation!

When I was a little kid I had a cassette tape (really? I used those once?) that came with a book of children's songs that was fully awesome. I know there was a song called "Rainbow Made of Children" or something like that, and one about a kid taking a bath with a shark, where the chorus was "Mommy, help me! I'll be good, you'll see! Mommy, help me! Eek! Eek! Shark!" I think there was another song on there about "We dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men."

I've Googled those song lyrics I can remember, but and checked iTunes, but I'm coming up dry. The tape was really a lot of fun, and now that I've got cute little nephews, I'd like to be able to give them a CD of it. Surely I can't be the only 30-year-old who had that cassette?

""We dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men." is actually a quote from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie. Of course, that doesn't mean it wasn't used in a song, but that may be why it's associated with childhood memories.

mspaul, I think it actually is originally from the story of Rip Van Winkle, or a poem written about that story and the area of upstate New York where the "little men playing ninepins in the mountains" myth comes from. The poem goes:

Up the misty mountain,
Down the rushy glen;
We daren't go a-hunting,
for fear of little men.

I HAD THAT SAME CASSETTE TAPE. I've also been looking for it for years. I am also 30. I can add a few details, assuming it really is the same one: they were sold personalized with your name, like those key chains at gas stations, so my tape had all the songs start addressing me by name. ("Hey Megan, lets go on an adventure!" Etc). There was a song about a dinosaur, and also one about traveling that mentioned Bangkok. I really remember the "fear of little men" line- that was kind of like a chant, and maybe whispered? I seem to remember it was a man and a woman and maybe a couple of kids singing all the songs. Sorry I can't remember the title.

The book description reminded me so much of the movie Waitress that I checked that out to see if it was inspired by the book. Either Wikipedia doesn't know about it, the author of the book never figured it out, or it's just a coincidence, but there's no reference to a book.

It's called "Songs About Animals and Others" by Sandra Beech. There was a cassette and book set. The song with the line about fear of little men was called "The Leprechaun" and there's also a shark song and a children's medley (which I'm betting is the "rainbow of love" song). You can buy the CD on her website for $16: http://www.sandrabeech.com

(The other tape I was thinking of was the Happy Kids "Magical Journeys" tape, for anyone that cares or that ends up here via google.)